That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.

Virtue is too often merely local.

All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance.

There is no book so poor that it would not be a prodigy if wholly made by a single man.

I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.

Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he is unfit for marriage.

The wise man applauds he who he thinks most virtuous; the rest of the world applauds the wealthy.